Aw, shoot…

By Penny Stine

I ordered some seeds because I wanted to try a little indoor vegetable gardening in front of my living room window this winter. When you order seeds from a seed catalog, it often gives you the option of choosing between a small, garden-size bag of seeds or a large, farm-size bag of seeds. I thought I ordered one packet of pea seeds, but when my order came, it included five packet of peas.

My living room window isn't that big.

Originally, I was going to let the peas grow up and twine and vine themselves all around this plant stand. I figured it would cheer me up in January when it's cold and dark outside. I also found a cucumber that didn't need pollination (so I didn't have to have bees in my house in the winter), which I planted in the small round pots. The big round pots have my unhappy basil, which is currently in a snit because I brought it in from the outdoors, where it used to soak in the warm sunshine. It doesn't understand that the deck is no longer delightful and this is the best I can do, given that it's November.

When I was searching for something else online, I came across the newest trendy veggie: pea shoots, which are the tender leaves and tendrils of a pea plant before it gets enormous. Although some people would have you believe that you have to buy special pea seeds, I read other experts who said any old pea would do.
Since I have five packets of pea seeds, I decided I may as well grow pea shoots rather than peas. I figured I could replant often throughout the winter, since they're ready to eat within a couple weeks of planting. The other day, I broke off an inch-long section and took a taste.
Hmmm… it tasted like… peas!
Go figure.
I'm not sure if the plant will survive once I start whacking back and get serious about harvesting the shoots, but at this point, it's immaterial. I still have four and a half more packets of pea seeds.